Alito sworn in as Supreme Court justice

updated 7:48 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2006

WASHINGTON - Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. was sworn in Tuesday as the 110th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after winning confirmation in a fierce partisan battle over the future direction of the high court.

Earlier, the Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Alito — a former federal appellate judge, U.S. attorney and conservative lawyer for the Reagan administration — as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote on the court.

All but one of the Senate’s majority Republicans voted for his confirmation, while all but four of the Democrats voted against Alito.

That is the smallest number of senators in the party opposing a president to support a Supreme Court justice in modern history. Chief Justice John Roberts got 22 Democratic votes last year, and Justice Clarence Thomas — who was confirmed in 1991 on a 52-48 vote — got 11 Democratic votes.

“United States senators refused to stand silent while President Bush packed the Supreme Court with far-right ideologues,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement after the confirmation. “Those who believe in privacy rights, who fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged, who believe in the balance of power between the president and Congress took a stand in support of our country and our Constitution.”

Kerry. along with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., had attempted last week to drum up support for a filibuster against Alito.

President Bush and Alito watched the vote together in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Bush shook Alito’s hand, and aides erupted in a long round of applause when final approval came.

Alito was sworn in by Roberts, Bush's first Supreme Court nominee, who administered the constitutional and judicial oaths in a private ceremony at the court, a spokeswoman said.

Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Bomgardner, along with other members of the court and their spouses, attended the ceremony in the justices’ conference room. The 55-year-old New Jersey jurist took both the constitutional and judicial oaths so he can immediately participate in court decisions.

The vote and ceremony were conducted in time for him to appear with Bush at the State of the Union speech Tuesday evening.

White House event Wednesday
Alito was also expected to be ceremonially sworn in a second time at a White House East Room appearance on Wednesday.

With the confirmation vote, O’Connor’s resignation became official. She resigned in July but agreed to remain until her successor was confirmed. She was in Arizona Tuesday teaching a class at the University of Arizona law school.

Underscoring the rarity of a Supreme Court justice confirmation, senators answered the roll by standing one by one at their desks as their names were called, instead of voting and leaving the chamber. Alito and Roberts are the first two new members of the Supreme Court since 1994.

Alito is a longtime federal appeals judge, having been confirmed by the Senate by unanimous consent on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on April 27, 1990. Before that, he worked as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney and as a lawyer in the Justice Department for the conservative Reagan administration.

It was his Reagan-era work that caused the most controversy during his three-month candidacy for the high court.

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